Stacking the Deck

Our family plays a lot of Uno.  Especially when grandma brings her bionic Uno dispenser . . . it mixes things up a bit. Benjamin particularly likes to play this game as he finally feels like one of the older kids in the family.  He does find himself frustrated every so often as he is unable to win as often as he would like.

After Family Home Evening last week, he asked if I would play just a quick game with him before bed.  I agreed and he scurried off to "shuffle" the cards.  After I received my third "pick-up-four" from him I asked him to see his cards.  I quickly discovered I was playing with a card shark!  "Benjamin did you find all the wild cards in the deck and give them to yourself?" I asked.  "Not exactly. . ."  he replied.  "Benjamin that's cheating!" I declared.   He then explained,  "But mom it's good cheating, because . . . see now I'm going to win!"

A Little Lesson

Mmmmmm.  The irony is if we could stack our decks in life and have more control over the hands we are dealt each day, I am pretty sure none of us would choose most of the trials we have endured.  We would instead fill our lives with aces and wild cards that would make it seem like we would surely win the game.  However, I am convinced without a doubt that it is the trials in our lives that make us strong and robust.  Sometimes it takes a great deal of time and even distance from the trial to recognize this, but it is inevitably true.  A stacked deck would indeed leave us loosing in the end.  Now I'm off to teach my 5 year old not to cheat.